Monday, September 29, 2008

Rainzilla & The Saint


Above, Rain is wearing a "My Name is Not No!No!" shirt. She is sitting next to Buddha--er--I mean Madison. Madi is so very, very low-key that, well, it only makes Rain seem even more high maintenance.
Today Rain & I went for walk with her stroller. No, Rain didn't go for a walk in her stroller, she went for a walk with her stroller. She insisted on pushing the stroller herself the entire time. She has a Jeep stroller, which is really cool, but a bit on the heavy side. If I tried to guide the stroller, she'd scream. So, there we were walking down the street, and Rain is huffing and puffing to keep the stroller going. But, she keeps veering to the right, so we are hitting the curb over and over again (and cars, too, but don't tell the neighbors). She fell on her knees and scraped them no less than four times. Each time she'd screech for just a second, and she'd get back up all tra-la-la everything's daisy. "What's that?" she'd say conversationally."Oh, wow!"
"Honey, let Mommy help you," I said, and tried to guide the stroller. Every time she started crying.
SO STUBBORN!
My niece calls Rain, "Rainzilla." I'd ask her to be more polite, but if the shoe fits ...
The unsung hero in all this is Tim. Tim is the most patient man I know, and for his actions this morning, I will now sing his praises.
Last night, we went to bed at 11:00. Rain seemed fine and her crib, and I fell asleep quickly watching Planet Earth on the Discovery Channel (weird dreams about otters to follow).
5:00 A.M.
At 5:00 in the Ahhh Morning, Rain decided bedtime was over. She wailed for one hour. For one hour, Tim & I tried to soothe her with medicine, ice, food--nothing worked. We were sure it was her teeth again, but nothing would calm her down. I was falling asleep trying to get Rain to quit crying. Tim, who had to go to work this morning, said, "I'll walk her around." He took her out of the bedroom, and I assumed they would fall asleep on the couch together as they do on rough nights. Not long after, Rain stopped crying, and I fell asleep.
I woke up a bit before 8:00. Turned out, Rain never went to sleep. She just just stopped crying. Tim had decided to start his morning (make coffee, eat breakfast, water the lawn, and the like) since Rain wouldn't go to sleep.
Are you kidding? I was so upset with Rain, who by the way, seemed more than happy to have Daddy as her playmate for an extra 3 hours this morning. I also felt terrible that Tim had taken it upon himself to keep Rain happy.
The minute Tim left for work (tired, I'm sure), I looked at Rain and said, "You're going to bed."
Rainzilla did her best to get me to let her watch The Wiggles, but I wasn't having it. I put her in a bear hold, and she eventually went to sleep (or passed out, not sure).
You know, my friend just had a baby last week. I visited them at the hospital, and there the little girl was, so cute and small. The parents were very happy and proud, of course. It made me wonder about the possibility of having another kid. But even as I held that sweet little baby in my arms, I recalled Jeff Foxworthy's warning:
Godzilla used to be a little lizard, too.

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